It’s a season of joy. Just don’t also Happy—at least not at company holiday parties.
“Having to call an ambulance, it’s a whole thing,” said Dani Herrera, a talent culture and DEI consultant, of situations where employees drink too much at holiday parties. “The guy fell down the stairs and I think broke a leg or something like that. It’s not good, mate.”
Herrera witnessed it all. On a recent episode of HR Brew, she shared it all with Kate Noel, Morning Brew’s senior vice president and head of people operations, from what she’s seen to what you can do as an HR professional if you encounter a similar situation. everyone podcast.
The following content has been edited for length and clarity.
Have you ever experienced a crazy holiday situation?
So, I’ll probably start on the positive side. Well, the positive side is I worked for a company many, many years ago and what they did is they actually did this activity during the day and they did it like some kind of retreat. So you actually have indoor and outdoor space and everyone can do whatever they want. There’s no alcohol around which makes it more inclusive and a little nicer. So that’s really a good thing. But the worst-case scenario is really, really bad. I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen harassment, I’ve seen sexual harassment. I’ve seen people fall down the stairs because they were drunk. So yeah, not great.
Now, it’s day two and we’re now dealing with the aftermath of the party. What preparations do HR professionals need?
First and foremost, try to do it on a Friday.
Thursday is okay too, as Friday may be a little more flexible. You can come later, but let’s not do it on Tuesday. I know, especially in New York, real estate is expensive. So you’ll have a party whenever you can, but it’ll be harder in the middle of the week.
And then I highly recommend, especially if you’re doing this mid-week, let’s make sure you’re a little more flexible the next day. If we have a 9 to 5 job and you have to be at work at 9 a.m. and that’s company policy, then the party may need to end a little early.
Let’s say we had some tea: we heard something happened at the party, or maybe there was an after-party. As an HR person, what would you recommend as the best way to handle these things?
So it goes back to whatever policies you put in place and the culture you put in place… But, as I said before, if you hear that someone has had an accident, there are processes and steps that you have to follow. You may want to make sure that person is actually okay. Are they in the hospital? Do we need to notify their manager? Do we need to reassign the work they’re doing or something? If Tea is a little unfortunate, it’s, I don’t know, harassment, which is where we need to have some of the more difficult conversations and probably need to make some difficult decisions. But again, it really depends on the situation, your company culture, and your policies. If you don’t have any policies that cover any of the things we’re talking about, maybe now is the time to actually get them done.
For more on this conversation, listen to the People Person podcast Apple Podcasts, Spotifyand Youtubeor watch below.
This report is Originally published go through HR Brewing.